The process of delivering products has become more complex as it has become increasingly time sensitive in many situations. This is particularly apparent for the delivery of perishable food products and/or prepared meals that may have an effective lifetime of no more than a few hours. Moreover, supply chains are being strained to meet shorter delivery times caused by the short effective lifetime of many products. It follows that, for companies shipping products that are sensitive to time, temperature, humidity, etc., or otherwise considered perishable products, there is a challenge in ensuring the products are managed properly, arrive in a desirable condition and within a defined delivery time. Furthermore, for companies receiving products that are sensitive to time, temperature, humidity, etc., or other perishable products, there is a need for ensuring the products being received have been handled properly, are in desirable condition and are within defined delivery times. Often the impact of mishandling is not visually apparent, and therefore invisible to the receiver without product condition monitoring throughout distribution.
However, even with product condition monitoring, those shipping products are currently unable to utilize product data collected during the shipping process until after the product has been delivered. Therefore, those shipping products may not realize that a shipment of perishable products has surpassed a product tolerance until after it has been delivered, e.g., after receipt, upon their inspection.
A method for managing a product delivery process, according to one embodiment, includes: receiving status information from one or more product containers, wherein the status information includes conditions of each of the one or more product containers; determining preferred ranges for the conditions of each of the one or more product containers based on a product stored in each of the one or more product containers; determining whether the received conditions from the one or more product containers are within the preferred ranges; and sending a command in response to determining that at least one of the received conditions is outside the determined preferred range.
A computer program product, according to another embodiment, includes: executable computer code embodied on a computer readable storage medium, the computer code including: computer code for receiving status information from one or more product containers, wherein the status information includes conditions of each of the one or more product containers; computer code for determining preferred ranges for the conditions of each of the one or more product containers based on a product stored in each of the one or more product containers; computer code for determining whether the received conditions from the one or more product containers are within the preferred ranges; and computer code for sending a command in response to determining that at least one of the received conditions is outside the determined preferred range.
A system, according to yet another embodiment, includes: a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to: receive, by the processor, status information from one or more product containers, wherein the status information includes conditions of each of the one or more product containers; determine, by the processor, preferred ranges for the conditions of each of the one or more product containers based on food product stored in each of the one or more product containers; determine, by the processor, whether the received conditions from the one or more product containers are within the preferred ranges; send, by the processor, a command in response to determining that at least one of the received conditions is outside the determined preferred range; receive, by the processor, food product history corresponding to the food products stored in the one or more product containers; use, by the processor, the food product history to determine a prioritized delivery scheme of the one or more product containers; send, by the processor, the prioritized delivery scheme to an individual transporting the one or more product containers; evaluate, by the processor, the food product history corresponding to the food products and/or the conditions of each of the one or more product containers; determine, by the processor, whether any of the food products are unsafe and/or undesirable; and send, by the processor, a command to not deliver certain food products in response to determining that they are unsafe and/or undesirable.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, which, when taken in conjunction with the drawings, illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention.